The UAE men’s side will start their T20 World Cup campaign without Muhammad Zohaib after the batter was ordered back to Dubai for what the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) labelled “disciplinary reasons”. A brief board statement offered no further explanation, adding only that “more details will be provided in due course”.
The timing is awkward. On Tuesday the Emiratis meet New Zealand in Chennai – their first appearance at a global tournament since 2022 – and Zohaib was pencilled in as a spare top-order option. The 25-year-old has played 16 T20 internationals, scoring 303 runs at 20.20 with a strike-rate of 103.76, figures that underline a steady, rather than spectacular, contribution but still hand the selectors another headache.
Form coming in is shaky. UAE were bundled out for 81 in Friday’s warm-up against Italy, Zohaib coming in down at No. 9, and only fared marginally better versus Nepal earlier in the week, when he made a 26-ball 19 at first drop. The management had already locked in 21-year-old Aryansh Sharma to open alongside captain Muhammad Waseem, yet depth matters at a World Cup and the dressing-room now looks one body light.
Waseem struck an upbeat note when he spoke to reporters, choosing to recall UAE’s surprise win over the Black Caps in Dubai in 2023.
“Our strategy is very simple,” Waseem said. “We beat them before in UAE but this time it’s a different venue, different tournament, different ground, and different game also. So we came with another plan right now. So yes, they are a good team and have experience also. But we work very well and we have prepared ourselves like a champion team. We will try to play good cricket against them tomorrow”
The skipper also played down any notion of split loyalties in a squad featuring players of Indian and Pakistani heritage.
“there is no India-Pakistan. We are playing for the UAE and we are always treating ourselves like a family. We are living like a family, friends. We are spending time together, eating together. There is no Indian-Pakistani in the UAE team to be honest.”
Whether the loss of Zohaib disrupts that harmony remains to be seen. For the moment, ECB officials are keeping their counsel, and the focus shifts to a meeting with a seasoned New Zealand side fresh from a full home summer. The task was sizeable already; it has just grown a touch taller.
